The present invention relates to control of a method for copying data from a main storage to a sub storage.
Control of a method for copying data of a storage area is known wherein data is redundantly stored in two or more storages at remote locations, in order to improve the reliability of data held in the storage area and to evade data loss resulting from a disaster such as a fire or an earthquake.
The technique as shown in “Hitachi TrueCopy realizing disaster recovery by remote copy”, ([online], the home page of Hitachi, Ltd., SANRISE series Technical Information/Technical Description, [printed on Jun. 26, 2003], Internet &1t; URL: http://www.hitachi.co.jp/Prod/comp/storage/sanrise/tech info/htc/index.html&gt) (“Hitachi TrueCopy”) can realize data copy for a volume between two storages existing at remote locations without transferring the data via a host computer, and can quickly perform data transfer to a remote center with a disaster measure, and can also perform relocation and integration of a data center so as to be independent from the host computer.
In a LAN (Local Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network) as a network connecting a plurality of host computers using a storage area, a user account exists as authentication information for accessing apparatuses on the network and resources of an application.
With today's larger networks, user accounts are increasingly managed together with hierarchical information on user belonging or authentication on a dedicated account management server. In addition, a dedicated storage area (home directory) for each user corresponding to a user account can be held on a volume in a storage.
When user account movement is performed on an account management server due to the user's own transfer of the account, a corresponding home directory movement of the user on a volume is necessary.
In “Integrated User Administration Assistant Software Soliton UserAdmin”, ([online], the home page of Soliton Systems K.K., Introduction of handled products, [printed on Jun. 26, 2003], Internet &1t; URL: http://net.soliton.co.jp/products/soliton/useradmin/use admin.html&gt)(“UserAdmin”) with user movement on an account management server, home directory movement on a volume can be performed using a file copy function between host computers.
In UserAdmin described above, with user account movement, home directory movement of a targeted user on a volume in a storage can be performed between host computers (that is, via a LAN or WAN). Since the movement is betweenhost computers (in contrast to Hitachi TrueCopy), processing occurs in which the host computers read out data, so as not to make copy processing with the movement faster. In addition, copy processing is executed using a network of a LAN or WAN connecting many kinds of computers. When the host computers execute other processing, the copy processing cannot be executed quickly, resulting in delay of the copy processing. Further, the load itself of the host computers themselves is increased due to the processing.
In the technique of Hitachi TrueCopy, the copy unit is a volume unit. Its function cannot be used as user movement in home directory units. With user account movement, a function using a copy function to move a targeted volume cannot be realized.